Flat panel light sources are a new technology and suffer from numerous limitations that impede their use in commercial products. For example, current manufacturing technology limits the ability to economically produce large panels due to issues in managing defects. Manufacturing and inventory management issues also lead to limitations in the variety of available flat panel light sizes. Yet another limitation is introduced by lack of adequate flexible barrier and substrate materials. A consequence of this limitation is the inability to easily produce lamps that can conform to different specific shapes.
Unlike existing commercially available lighting sources such as incandescent and fluorescent bulbs, which have well-established standards for sockets and bases, flat panel light sources have no broadly accepted means for connection to power sources. U.S. Pat. No. 6,565,231 provides a first description of a system comprised of a socket and contacts on a flat panel light source. This system is limiting in that it provides for a very narrow range of possible configurations of the flat panel light sources.
There is a need therefore for an improved design of flat panel lighting devices to provide for the design flexibility that is provided by having large panels, panels in a wide variety of sizes, and panels that can be formed into a variety of shapes.